Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures rise ahead of key inflation data, with Apple and Amazon to report

US stock futures surged on Thursday as investors weighed a new trade deal with South Korea and strong earnings from Meta (META) and Microsoft (MSFT).

S&P 500 futures (ES=F) rose 1.1%, while those on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) moved up 0.4%. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) jumped 1.5% after quarterly reports from Meta and Microsoft wowed Wall Street late Wednesday, sending the stocks of both tech giants soaring.

Meta impressed investors with an earnings beat as well as stronger-than-expected guidance even as the company ramps up its AI spending spree. Microsoft also posted impressive results, showcasing the company’s strength in cloud computing and AI.

Later on Thursday, Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) will report their earnings results.

On the macro front, investors will get another clue as to the possible direction of interest rates with the release of the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index.

Stocks were mixed in during the day Wednesday after the Fed held interest rates steady for its fifth-straight meeting, with two Fed governors dissenting.

Following the decision, Fed Chair Jerome Powell stressed “no decisions” had been made about a September rate cut, undercutting Trump’s claim he had heard a September rate cut was coming.

Easing trade war fears also buoyed markets after the US struck a flurry of trade deals on the eve of President Trump’s tariff deadline.

On Wednesday, Trump announced the US had made a pact with South Korea that imposes a 15% tariff rate on its imports. US exports to the country will not be charged a tariff, according to Trump’s post on Truth Social.

“South Korea will be completely OPEN TO TRADE with the United States,” the president wrote.

Trump said that South Korea also agreed to $350 billion in US investments as well as purchases of liquified natural gas and other energy products.

LIVE 3 updates

  • Brian Sozzi

    This is remarkable on Meta

    Meta’s (META) stock is rocking higher in premarket, to the tune of 12% after a monster quarter.

    Got to love the market ignoring the capex stuff in its earnings release below, and focusing in on Meta’s revenue trends (strong).

    “We currently expect 2025 capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, to be in the range of $66-72 billion, narrowed from our prior outlook of $64-72 billion and up approximately $30 billion year-over-year at the mid-point. While the infrastructure planning process remains highly dynamic, we currently expect another year of similarly significant capital expenditures dollar growth in 2026 as we continue aggressively pursuing opportunities to bring additional capacity online to meet the needs of our artificial intelligence efforts and business operations,” Meta said.

    Bottom line: bull market … carry on!

  • Brian Sozzi

    Microsoft earnings call: A quick take

    A bit of a sleepy earnings call from Microsoft (MSFT) after the close, filled with the typical Satya Nadella tech jargon.

    Bottom line is this: Azure sales crushed, and there was zero signs of peaking AI demand. That should be good enough for the bulls.

    “We expect stock to trade up given continued large Azure growth beats and a positive AI trajectory even with continued capacity constraints. We think this also bodes well for other AI infrastructure names in our coverage (Oracle (ORCL), Coreweave (CRWV),” Citi analyst Tyler Radke said.

  • Samsung Electronics chip business fell drastically in Q2

    Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) saw a mammoth drop in profit from the chip-making arm of the electronics giant.

    Bloomberg reports:

    Read more here.

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